Banta

India is set to declare tea as its national drink to celebrate the life of a pioneering tea-planter who was hanged by British colonial rulers for taking part in the rebellion of 1857.

Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Saturday announced the decision while on a visit to Assam, the tea-producing northeastern state that borders on Bhutan and Bangladesh.

Assam was the home state of Maniram Dewan, who is celebrated for introducing commercial tea production to the region and for his role in a plot to throw the British out of Assam during the 1857 mutiny.

The uprising, which is often called the Sepoy Mutiny, started in Meerut, a city close to New Delhi, and spread across northern India before being brutally crushed by British forces with many Indian soldiers and civilians killed.

"The drink would be accorded national drink status by April 17 next year to coincide with the 212th birth anniversary of first Assamese tea-planter and Sepoy Mutiny leader Maniram Dewan," Ahluwalia said.

He added that tea should also be celebrated as "half of the tea industry labour comprises women and is the largest employer in the organised sector".

The Asian Age reported that awarding tea the status of national drink may stir up trouble among "naturopaths" who suggest popular Indian beverages such as coconut water, lemon water and yoghurt-based lassi are healthier options.

Tea is generally served in India with milk and plenty of sugar, and often spiced with cardamom.

Coffee, which is grown in the southern states of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, is becoming rapidly more popular among young urban Indians.

VADODARA: Your morning cup of tea would not fire up your sleepy senses without a little milk in it, and yet a debate has been stirred up on what should be India's national drink - tea or milk.

On Saturday, deputy chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia announced in Jorhat, the tea capital of India, that tea will be given that place of pride by April next year.

Wrong decision, say managers of the $3 billion brand Amul, which prides itself on being the 'taste of India' . Milk should be the national drink, the managers insist.

Ahluwalia had said that tea would be accorded national drink status by April 17 next year to coincide with the 212th birth anniversary of the first Assamese tea planter and Sepoy Mutiny leader Maniram Dewan, who was among the first indigenous tea planters in the country .

"But milk is the world's original energy drink for all age groups and for all healthy nations," says R S Sodhi, managing director of Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), the apex marketing body of all district dairy unions of Gujarat.

"There is no need to declare anything," he adds. Everybody knows milk is the national drink. Nobody in India has declared 'chapati' and rice as the national meal but they are," he adds from Anand, the country's milk capital and the birthplace of the White Revolution.

India is the largest producer and consumer of black tea in the world. But the case of milk is no different. The country surpassed US in 1998 and emerged as the world's largest milk producer, thanks to the largest dairy development programme launched by the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) under the chairmanship of Dr Verghese Kurien.

It was just last week that NDDB launched 'Mission Milk - the Next Revolution' - the first phase of National Dairy Plan - touted to be country's second White Revolution with the aim to double India's milk production. The Centre estimates that domestic demand for milk will grow to 200 million tonnes by 2021-22.

Sambara or rasama should be the National drink. Rest of India, you ungrateful, pitiful, unpatriotic scums. You c.h.i.n.k.i.s, bongs, kannadigas, cheppus can go to hell, you've not done anything for India. Only the master race has.

Sambara or rasama should be the National drink. Rest of India, you ungrateful, pitiful, unpatriotic scums. You c.h.i.n.k.i.s, bongs, kannadigas, cheppus can go to hell, you've not done anything for India. Only the master race has.

Click to expand...

That was lame, even by your standards, considering that Sambhar is famous in all four southern states equally.